First up, a review of the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Friendship Games Sporty Style Twilight Sparkle doll! 😀 I didn’t originally think I would get into collecting the EG dolls. They are really cute, but I always thought I’d stick with only ponies.

Well. I was wrong. 😉

A while back I was cruising the clearance aisles of Walmart and saw several of the Friendship Games dolls staring at me from the shelf. The price tag scanned as $8, but at that price I still didn’t think that I needed them. I really like the deluxe, higher price point Equestria Girls dolls, though, because they often have extra knee and elbow articulation.

Fast forward about a week. I was at the same Walmart again, and a lovely employee was walking along marking everything on the clearance rack down to half of the current tag price.

$4? Yep. 😉

And that, my friends, is what led me to this review today. 🙂

Here is Twilight in her box. She is also known as Sci-Twi, since she is the alternate dimension/human version of Twilight, NOT the pony Twilight who became a human after stepping through the mirror.

Her box is really cute, and I love the signature face that wraps around the box.

Her art is really cute here, too. 🙂

I also really like the packaging, with the Canterlot High backdrop. I find the style of these dolls appealing, since the characters were wearing fancy outfits during the archery contest in the Friendship Games movie. (Although the Canterlot High girls had fancier ones than the Shadow Bolts, because RARITY. 😉 )

The three-dimensional target is really cute! 🙂

Here is Twi with all of her loot! 🙂

Firstly, she comes with a Shadow Bolts ID card, which also has information about how you can register her in the Equestria Girls App.

As I’ve talked about a bit before here on the blog, earlier this year I got to plan and run a MLP: Equestria Girls themed summer camp for girls, where the kids crafted their own outfits and learned to dance to some of the MLP songs. Thus, I was listening to MLP songs even more than usual leading up to the camp. 😉 One of the songs from the Friendship Games (Acadeca) is super catchy, and even though we didn’t actually use it for the camp, it was on the playlist of songs that I used when I was doing the preliminary choreographing/planning. As I said, it’s really catchy and it easily gets stuck in your head. 😉 In the one part of the song, where the kids shout “Let’s go, WONDER COLTS!” my mom and I would always sing along, but then in the other part, the other kids yell, “Let’s go, SHADOW BOLTS!” and at one point I heard my mom singing, “Let’s go, HAMMER BOLTS!” and naturally I was hilariously confused. XD She honestly thought those were the words, and I agreed immediately that Hammer Bolts is a much better name than the silly Shadow Bolts. 🙂

So. All that to say. Twilight is (contrary to popular belief) not a Shadow Bolt. She is a HAMMER BOLT! 😉

Anyway. Twi also comes with a bow/arrow, which purple and yellow with a heart shaped tip (not sure that’s actually gonna stick in the target, hon 😉 ).

Oh, and yes, this did become Hawkeye’s bow for the Dollvengers after these photos were taken. 😉

Twilight also comes with a pair of wings that can be inserted through a hole in her back, which her dress nicely accommodates. And don’t get me wrong here; I love the idea of including wings with the dolls, and I also like that all of the EG dolls have a hole in their back so that they can share the wings, but at least on this doll, the wings don’t stay in AT ALL. I can barely touch her without them falling out. I may need to try adding a tiny rubber band around the peg so that it is thicker.

Anyway, they look really pretty both on and off of her! 🙂

She also comes with this quiver of arrows. The quiver has a little hook on the side that makes it easier to attach to her belt, and it also has some neat star molding. 🙂

Now, let’s move on to Twilight herself! 🙂 First, let’s look at some of these outer accessories.

All of the Equestria Girls dolls come with these necklaces that allow you to (as far as I know) log them into the EG app. These necklaces are molded closed, so the only way to get them off is by cutting them in the back. I don’t really mind doing this, though, because it’s easy to get them back on.

Next, she has a cute little yellow shoulder guard-type piece.

I guess it’s from the dark clothing underneath, but there was quite a bit of staining on this piece. Actually, I read that several Archery Sour Sweet dolls had this same staining problem, but on her legs! 😦 I actually have Sour Sweet (she was on the clearance, too), but I think I’ll debox and review her sooner rather than later, so that I can get those stain-inducing leggings off of her.

In any case, the shoulder guard does have some cool molded details, and I can see myself using this piece in some other outfits.

Twi also has a REALLY cool underbust corset piece, which I can’t wait to use in some other steampunk looks!! 😀

Her yellow spiky belt is adorned with an “s” and also has a little loopy piece to hold the quiver.

She also has a cool blue armband piece on her right arm.

Once you get past all of the plastic accessories, Twilight has a really cute party dress on! 🙂 I only wish that the blue puffed sleeve was on the other side, too, but I guess they did that so that the shoulder guard could sit better.

I really like the metallic blue detailing on the skirt!

Underneath, Twilight wears mismatched leggings in the signature EG style. 🙂 I’ve always liked this trademark style, but I’m happy to see that they’re moving in the direction of fabric tights instead of just painting the legs.

Her boots are REALLY cool. They have lightning bolt details on the heels, and the laces are really well painted.

On her head, Twilight wears yellow and silver sunglasses/goggles. I really like these, and I’ve actually tried these on some other brands of dolls, too, and found that they look good on everyone!

Her hair is a wonderful dark purple color, and it is divided into two large sausage curls in the back. The texture is really soft and nice, but as you can tell, the ends are a bit messy.

And, um, her bangs are a tad messed up. :}

Here is the back ponytail much improved after a brushing. I also ended up deciding to trim the ends after I took this picture.

That’s all there is to the review aspect of this post, but now I have something else DIY-ish to share. 🙂

As I already mentioned, I got to run a MLP camp this summer, and the best part of it was that I had an excuse to dress six of my best friends as the Mane 7 (the normal Mane 6 plus Sunset Shimmer) to be camp counselors! 🙂

It was so fun, and just to give you an idea, here we are on the first day of camp! 🙂 (Rainbow Dash was moving so quickly that she’s blurry, but I suppose that’s to be expected 😉 )

(In case you’re wondering, I made all of the costumes, right down to the shoes, which I custom painted! 🙂 )

Aaaand here is me on my way to camp dressed as Twilight! 🙂

#ALICORN 😉

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about this on the blog before, but I also have a business working at kids’ birthday parties and events as different characters. The main ones that I do are Elsa, Anna, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Ariel, and sometimes Merida. Anyway, I have this funny thing where I like to get dolls of the characters that I work as, so that I can have lots of mini-me’s, if you will. 🙂 The only one I don’t have is the DC Super Hero Girls Wonder Woman–who I really do want to get soon! 🙂

So while I thought that the Sporty Style Version of Twilight was really cute, I longed for a more signature-ish version that wears the same outfit as in the movie, and the same one that I replicated for my camp costume.

So the other day I was at one of my favorite thrift stores and I ran across THIS in one of the mixed toy bags!

Sure, she was disheveled, and no, she wasn’t an articulated version, but for $3, why not? 🙂

I then had an idea…what if I switched their heads so that I could have an articulated, signature outfit Twilight? 😀

More on that in a bit, but first, here is a quick comparison of the two universes’ Twilights.I like both of their faces, but the Shadow Bolts Twilight definitely looks older. Then again, all of the dolls from the line that I’m calling “Signature-Ish” look younger. I think it’s the eye placement.

Anywho, they’re both really cute and I like them both! Overall though, I like the Shadow Bolts Twilight’s eyes better, and the Signature Twilight’s mouth better. 🙂 In case you’re wondering, Twilight is in a Daiso kimono because she was relaxing after a boil wash. 🙂

In the movies, the two different Twilights are identical, except for the fact that one of them wears glasses and her hair is usually up in a bun.

These dolls, however, have some differences. Aside from the obvious facial difference, the Shadow Bolts Twi has darker hair and a totally different rooting pattern.

Another difference is that the stars around Sci-Twi’s cutie mark on her face are dark purple, and on normal Twi’s face they are the normal white. Maybe this is symbolizing the fact that she is the alternate universe version?

I love both of their hair shades, but the Shadow Bolts Twi has a better texture overall and I like her darker, richer shade, too. 🙂

I put normal Twi into a simpler dress (made by yours truly 🙂 ) to examine the difference in articulation.

Normal Twi has 5 points of articulation, and Sci-Twi has 9. The mobility in Sci-Twi’s joints is not the best, but it’s still pretty good, and it’s certainly better than no articulation at all. 🙂

Time for a….POSE OFF! 😛

Yeaaaahhh…the sitting award definitely goes to Sci-Twi. 😉

She’s FANTASTIC at kneeling!

After seeing how great the extra joints are, I was more than ready for a head swap.

“Ready?” “Ready.”

Having never done this on an EG doll, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Their heads are generally made of a harder plastic than the other dolls that I had done this on (like Barbie and EAH). I follow My Froggy Stuff’s awesome tips when doing head swaps. However, it worked even better than I had hoped, because unlike Barbie and EAH, these girls don’t have a huge prong-like peg on the inside–they just have a little smooth ball. This makes the job MUCH easier.

And…TA DA! 🙂 Now we have an articulated signature Twilight! 😀

At this point, however, I realized that I hadn’t tried posing her with the bow and arrow! So even though their heads were swapped, I figured it couldn’t hurt to have a little archery practice! 😉

I had a bit of a hard time attaching the quiver to the belt….

…But I found the right spot eventually.

Here is Twilight, all geared up for some archery! 😀

And after some clothes switching, I’m really happy with my two new Twilights! 😀

The New and Improved Signature Twilight also has repainted boots (done by yours truly), which I think turned out great, and which also look EXACTLY like the ones I wore for camp! 🙂

Finally, I thought it would be fun to show you all of the Twilights that I have!

I hope you enjoyed this combo review and head swap DIY! 🙂

I’ll close with another cute moment from camp. 😉 Each of the four days of camp, the campers watched about 15 minutes from the Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks movie. Adorably, our costumes and wigs looked so good (you couldn’t see our real hair at all!) that some of the youngest kids really thought that we were the Equestria Girls! 🙂 We went by our pony names all week, too, which was fun (a lot of the kids didn’t even know our real names!).

Anyway, it got to where when one of the characters in the movie would say something funny or cool, the kids would all turn to that counselor, and say, “That was so cool/funny when you said that!” 🙂

Undoubtedly the funniest, however, was that every time Flash Sentry came on screen, the kids (and counselors 😉 ) would all yell “TWILIGHT!!! It’s your boyfriend!!!” 😛 Now the joke in our circle of friends is that I only think boys are cute when they are blue haired guitar players. 😉

(Just so you know, though, I don’t plan on getting a boyfriend until I’m at least 21. Even if he is a blue haired guitar player. 😉 )

Wow, this was just a tangent-filled post. Oh, well. I hope you enjoyed it! 😀

The EQGS heads are so easy to swap! (Hence why Cellyzombie has had two body upgrades – first articulated with no feet, then she nicked off with an articulated Rarity’s body with feet which is the one she currently uses.) I haven’t actually tracked down archeryy Twi yet so it’s really cool seeing her full outfit – I was also worried about her pants staining like Sour’s as they’re dark so glad to see that’s not an issue. And thank you for the link 🙂